Last Request
by raine4bw
Summary: Post Chosen, Buffy and Willow meet after 2 years.
1. Landing

Title: Last Request  
Disclaimer: I own nothing!  
Spoilers: Up through season 7 - 'Chosen'  
Pairing: K/W for a bit, eventually B/W

* * *

**Landing**

When Willow called and told Buffy she wanted to visit, the once-only Chosen one had been excited, and relieved. Her job at the local karate studio was getting monotonous, though she loved her students, she missed her friends terribly. Xander was off with Andrew rounding up and instructing the new slayers, as well as placing some of the already trained slayers in key locations so that they could act as mentors. Faith and Robin occasionally helped Xan and Drew but mostly had their own agenda. Last Buffy heard they stopped some big bad halfway across the world and Faith's only comment was that the gas prices were "wicked cheap" over there. Not that the dark slayer had anything to worry about, with Robin paying for her. The two had a good relationship, and Buffy was happy for them. Dawn was in college, and loving it. The once-a-week phone calls that Buffy got were all about the latest things that she learned, and people that she met, and the never ending 'would Buffy please get a boyfriend so that her college friends would stop asking about her sister "The Slayer" and the Slayer's relationship status'.

_Sorry Dawnie _Buffy smiled to herself, as she finished closing up the studio and waved goodbye to her co-workers. _That's just not gonna happen _

Giles had gone back to England after the Hellmouth closed, to try and find something that had to do with Watchers, a codex, and something in a language Buffy couldn't pronounce. Willow and Kennedy had been sending Buffy letters, _well at least Willow had been,_ about the trip they had taken. They had received word almost 2 years ago about a unusually strong baby that had been born in a small village in Europe, but the village was said to be possessed and no airlines were allowed to fly in. So the witch and former potential slayer took it upon themselves to trek on foot after visiting Giles for reference material. Buffy laughed softly to herself, earning some strange looks as the crossed the street to her car. _Trust Willow to have to research before everything._

Willow had spent an entire letter detailing the village's historical importance and the absurdity of the airline pilots. But most of the information was way above Buffy's head. Nonetheless it had been nice to know her friend was having a good time. Buffy has stored the 2 page letter with all the other things she had gotten from her traveling friends. When Buffy stopped receiving letters for weeks she had initially grown quite worried and tried to contact Giles to see if he knew anything. Just when Buffy was about to call the fastest airline to England, Willow called. Upon hearing from Willow last Friday, all had seemed well, but Buffy could tell something was off. Willow had sounded tired but Buffy attributed a small part of that to jet lag. In fact, Buffy checked her watch _Her second flight should be landing soon_.

Buffy cell phone rang.

"Hello?" Holding the phone in one hand Buffy unlocked her car and put her equipment in the backseat.

"Buffy?"

"Will! Willow, hi!" Buffy got into the driver's seat and started the car, and then she realized, "Oh crap, I'm sorry I just got off of work I'll be at the airport in-"

"No no, its okay" Willow's voice still sounded tired, "I have to get a rental car for the week anyway, and I need to stop by Stride Rite on the way to your place."

"Oh, well, if you're sure" _Stride Rite?_ Buffy turned a curve a bit too sharply and was honked at for her grievous error. "Do you have the address still?"

"Yep" Willow rattled off Buffy's address, probably from memory, "We'll be there as soon as we can, gotta go there's an attendant waiting. Bye."

"Bye" Buffy was even more confused. Pulling into the parking lot, she dug out her apartment key from her purse all the while puzzling,_ Stride Rite?_


	2. Introductions

Title: Last Request  
Disclaimer: I own nothing!  
Spoilers: Up through season 7 - 'Chosen'  
Pairing: K/W for a bit, eventually B/W

* * *

**Introductions**

The doorbell rang just as Buffy was finished straightening up the apartment. Living by herself, the Slayer wasn't all that motivated to be neat. But when entertaining guests Buffy felt it should at least be presentable. Since Willow had mentioned that "we" were showing up at Buffy's apartment, the elder slayer assumed that the younger slayer would be with the redhead. Buffy and Kennedy hadn't really been the best of friends, but they were comfortable with each other. For the most part.

Unlocking and throwing the door open wide; Buffy greeted her guests with a huge grin.

"Welcome to..." Buffy trailed off and stared. Not at Willow, though her best friend was a sight she had sorely missed but at the small child with dark unruly hair that was holding a small package and rocking back and forth on her little feet. Willow's hand was on the child's shoulder in an affectionate and protective way but Buffy's mind spun and all she could think was _Who's the kid?_.

Buffy snapped out of her stupor and just barely stopped from defending herself when the child abruptly thrust her package in Buffy's direction. A small green and white box with a colorful logo appeared before the Slayer and she looked at Willow questioningly.

"New shoes!" the child exclaimed, ignoring the fact that the two adults hadn't said anything in a full minute. Buffy looked more carefully at the child. _She looks about...2 _Realization dawned upon Buffy _Oh this must be_

"Look!" The child was insistent and started waving the box up and down as Willow smiled slightly. Watching Buffy trying and failing to politely look at the box while it was moving, Willow gave up and laughed out loud. The sound was musical and Buffy realized just how much she missed the sound of laughter. Her quiet apartment didn't have much laugher anymore. Her-

Buffy resisted the urge to smack herself upside the head. Being alone a lot had its disadvantages. Like forgetting common courtesy. Gesturing quickly she ushered the two _one and a half?_ guests into her home.

"Come in, and I see your shoes" Buffy directed at the bouncing girl, and "would you like something to drink" at Willow. Buffy shut the door and snapped the 3 heavy duty locks into place. Willow declined the offer and the child continued bouncing up and down.

"Wear now?" An adorable set of puppy-dog eyes was directed at Buffy. Confused, she looked at Willow, who gave a small smile.

"I told her she could wear them if you let her, I didn't want her messing up your" Willow glanced around "...nonexistent carpet". Buffy's entire apartment had hardwood floors. Buffy recognized a stall tactic. _Probably didn't want the shoes getting dirty on the streets outside. How cute_

Buffy grinned, and shrugged, then bent down to the child's level, "I'll tell you what, if you can tell me your name I'll let you wear your shoes"

Oddly enough the small one looked at Willow for a second before grinning widely.

"I'm Alex!" and with that the child sat down on the floor and pulled off her 'old' shoes, setting them carefully to the side and proceeded to put on her amazing 'new' shoes.

Buffy and stood back up, she noticed Willow had found the sofa and sat down. Willow's entire attention was on the child, which surprised Buffy. _It's almost like she's the child's_

Chalking up another point on the dumb-blonde-board, Buffy offered her hand to Willow, "Would you like to tour the Casa De Buffy?"

Willow gave a small smile at Buffy's attempt at Xander-speak. She took Buffy's hand but the Slayer noticed the slight tremble in the small pale hand she held. _Something's wrong _Buffy thought, and frowned, but quickly smiled when she noticed that Alex had stopped mid-shoe-tie to look at her.

Willow instructed the girl to be good, and Buffy bit back a laugh when she saw that Alex's new shoes had little Scooby-Doos on them. _That can't be coincidence_. Buffy lead her friend gently through her apartment.

* * *

"And that concludes our tour" Buffy's apartment was spacious, with three bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen and laundry room, and a family/living room which she converted into a TV room. All one level, with a good view of the city. Though technically one of the bedrooms was a study. During the first year after the destruction of Sunnydale, a lot of young slayers ended up at Buffy's house because they needed a place to crash so she decided to give up the pretense that she was a studious person and stuck an extra bed in the room. Nowadays all the new slayers were being given rooms in large houses set up around the world, if they didn't already have a place they could stay.

Buffy thought about Willow and Kennedy's original mission; even though she still hadn't gotten the full story on the child she had enough clues to make a hunch. And as the Slayer, her hunches were usually correct. Most of the time.

Willow had been quiet throughout the tour, only asking a few polite questions despite the slayer's best efforts to throw in some humor and silliness into the tour. Buffy needed to talk to her friend, and soon. Something was definitely not right.

"Willow" the child- _Alex, _Buffy corrected herself, launched herself out of the chair she had been patiently or as patiently as an almost two year old can, waiting. Attaching to Willow's legs, Alex looked pleadingly at her.

"Food!"

_Was that a question or a demand? _Buffy laughed at the embarrassed look Willow developed and realized that Willow probably hadn't thought that far ahead. Which was slightly disconcerting. But Buffy had just assumed.

"You two are staying here, right? I mean, I have the space, and you're welcome to the fridge when I'm gone and..." Buffy trailed off and was relieved when Willow actually smiled.

"That would be nice, thanks Buff"

"No probably...Will" Buffy opened the fridge and looked inside. She grimaced, without Giles around her meals had pretty much consisted of anything that didn't require cooking. "We have...any frozen dinner you can imagine"

"Macaroni!" Alex piped up from her place on Willow's leg.

Buffy checked her fridge. "Okay we have one vote for macaroni, anything else?" She gestured dramatically to the fridge. "Take your pick."


	3. Dinner

Title: Last Request  
Disclaimer: I own nothing!  
Spoilers: Up through season 7 - 'Chosen'  
Pairing: K/W for a bit, eventually B/W

* * *

**Dinner**

Willow decided on a chicken dinner and Buffy picked a steak concoction she had been wanting to try. Alex devoured her meal in record time but oddly, at least to Buffy it was odd, she sat quitely in her chair while the adults finished eating. Buffy filed the quiet obedience for later. The Slayer and the witch ate in silence.

Occasionally Buffy would start to say something, but stop, making an akward coughing sound. Finally when the child starting fidgeting and Willow was just picking and prodding her food, Buffy couldn't hold it in anymore.

"So...Alex" she said slowly.

"Alexis" Willow's voice was soft. The child in question gave a defiant glare at her guardian and pouted but didn't say anything.

"Oh" Buffy was quiet. It was nice to know her full name but that wasn't entirely what Buffy wanted to know. Buffy wasn't the most tactful person in the world and this seemed like a situation where tact was key.

"Uncle Xander" the child stopped glaring and grinned at Buffy, who was taken aback.

_Okay...that was creepy_

Willow looked up fully and glanced at Buffy, and then at Alexis who seemed a bit smug. The redhead put two and two together as Buffy tilted her head ever so slightly.

"Her name comes from Xander. He was the one that," Willow hesitated, "he helped us in part of the mission. And after-" Willow stopped completely and the child Alex frowned.

"Down" she said loudly, holding out her arms, and Willow helped her out of the adult sized chair (plus pillows) she had been sitting on. Alex whispered a few words to Willow and the woman nodded and waved in the general direction of Buffy's entertainment system. Alex toddled off in a straight path to Buffy's television.

"They got along really well," Willow continued, "Xander and Alex, when we met up with some of the other slayers. Alex" Willow gestured at the child, "needed to change her name for protection reasons and n-noone saw anything wrong with it at the time." Willow smiled slightly, "Xander was so proud he just wanted to make sure that she didn't get his middle name as well."

"But what about" Buffy didn't know how to say it, "her mother..."

"Her mother was a fool" Willow said harshly.

_Ex-nay on the mother, got it_ Buffy raised her eyebrows and frowned as Willow's hands tightened on the plastic tablecloth. The Slayer decided to drop the subject _For now_.

"Her mother wasn't a...good influence." Willow said softly, "so we-I took her in. I had to." Sitting up abruptly, she grabbed her meal and headed in the direction of the kitchen.

Not sure whether or not she should follow the visibly tense woman, Buffy put her chin in her hand and watched little Alex laughing at the cartoon characters on television. The black leather chair the child was sitting in nearly engulfed her whole, but Buffy knew there was more to the small body than meets the eye.

The phone rang a few minutes later and Buffy stopped watching the coyote fall into a cloud of dust. She grabbed the teenage-Slayer-battered phone from the hallway table.

"Hello?"

"Hello Buffy, perhaps um, is Willow there?"

"Giles?"


	4. Decisions

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except maybe Alex. And any spelling mistakes.  
Spoilers: Up through season 7 - 'Chosen'

**

* * *

4 - Decisions**

"Giles?" Buffy was dumbfounded. Giles never called. He was too busy, He was too this, too that. She wasn't even sure her ex-Watcher remembered what a cell phone was but judging by the static and wind in the background he wasn't at home.

"I was given the impression that Willow was with you by now and I need to speak to her about the...um well is she there?" Giles sounded nervous. Nervous Giles was never a good thing.

"She's in the kitchen" Buffy said slowly, _Did Giles just say 'um?_ "but I don't think she's in the talking mood right now."

"Oh, well I suppose I could call back in an hour if you could just let her know I called I would appreciate it-"

"Giles!" Buffy wasn't about to let him get off the hook that easily. She spoke quietly but rapidly.

"Giles what happened? Don't get me wrong the kid's cute, but something definitely not normal about her, and Willow hasn't said two full sentences about the big mission she and Kennedy went on. All then she says she saw you -and- Xander and when did she see you I thought you never left-"

"Buffy..." the Englishman gave a sigh and Buffy pictured dark rimmed glasses being cleaned with a handkerchief.

"What happened Giles?" Buffy wasn't used to being outside of the loop. Sure, she wasn't the One and Only Slayer anymore, but that didn't mean she wasn't part of the fight still..._right?_

"Buffy, I" The Englishman hesitated, "Willow hasn't said anything to you?"

The Slayer started pacing the hallway.

"No, she hasn't. In fact no one's said anything to me about the kid, or that freaky Codex thing and it's starting to make me twitchy. Giles tell me what you know, tell me anything, please!"

The Englishman cleared his throat before replying. "Buffy I'm afraid it's not that simple. We have a lot of hearsay and bad translations so we're not even sure if its really- oh excuse me" A door closed and with it the whooshing air sound stopped.

Buffy picked up nearby pen and started twirling it like a stake, still pacing. She glanced into the living room and saw Willow still had not returned. Alex however, was firmly rooted in Buffy's favorite armchair and had a remote in each hand.

"- sorry about that Buffy. Really I just called to relay a few things to Willow. Its really not that..important" Giles hesitated again which allowed Buffy to realize that he was lying to her. Actually full out lying and she didn't understand why.

Buffy sighed. She reached the end of her pace line and looked up to see Willow standing at the entrance to the kitchen.

"Is that Giles?" she asked quietly.

"Yes, he wants to talk to -you-" Buffy hesitated, then held out the phone, muttering under her breath "he won't tell me anything"

Acknowledging her irritation with a very small smile, Willow accepted the phone.

"Giles, what's wrong?"

* * *

Buffy retreated to the TV room and slouched into a chair. Alexis didn't look away from the screen. Buffy stretched in an exaggerated manner that allowed her to lean toward the hallway and use her Slayer hearing to catch the conversation between two of her oldest friends, both of whom seemed to be keeping her in the dark.

"Willow, we found her."

Willow visibly paled and Buffy had to stop herself from going to her friend. She quickly stood back up and moved closer to lean against the wall. On the TV screen, brightly color cartoon characters were still entertaining Alexis.

"A-are you sure", Willow whispered, glancing towards the TV room fearfully "you know the first time it was just a trap."

"I know but we've pinpointed where we think she should be. There have been several different sightings and all of them are within the same radius so we're more certain about where the main site is this time. And" Giles hesitated briefly before he continuing, "it is getting to the point where they aren't hiding the bodies anymore. They're either getting sloppy or-"

"Or she's letting them leave a trail on purpose" Willow sighed softly. "when do you need me there?"

There were some paper rustling noises over the phone.

"Our teams are camped out and have enough men and witches to secure a wide perimeter for 48 hours. We could really use you on the next flight out here."

"I'll be there." Willow glanced at the Slayer now, seeming to just now realize she was still there, "that is - we'll be there"

Giles cleared his throat loudly, "Ah- Willow I don't know that"

"We'll be there" she stressed, "I'll fill her in. I-we need her Giles. Risks be damned we need her help so we don't lose any more of them."

There was silence for a beat and a very British sounding "Very well." sealed the arrangement.

* * *

The phone clicked softly into place on the receiver and Willow turned to gaze silently at Buffy.

Willow hesitated, then held up two fingers.

"One, let me get Alex to bed and then two, we can continue this..discussion" Willow frowned, "but is there anywhere we can..."

"How about the study?" Under difference circumstances Buffy would have laughed at the startled look on Willows face. She pointed to a room down the hall and reminded her, "its the last bedroom down that way. I'll wait there until you're ready?"

"Alright" Willow nodded then turned to walk back into the living room.

Buffy started to follow, but realized she needed to get a few things done before the two of them could comfortably sit and talk. Like moving the small twin bed against the wall for some walking room.

And finding some chairs that weren't covered in mud, clothes, weapons, or all of the above.

Wishing briefly that she had a maid, Buffy used Slayerspeed to dash down the hall. She started putting clothes into heaps and stacking weapons into corners and hoped Willow wouldn't take long putting the kid to bed.

* * *

It was well past 8:30pm when Willow was finally done putting Alex to bed. Donning her own pajamas, she crept quietly down the hall in the direction Buffy had pointed earlier.

She found the Slayer fast asleep in a large leather chair surrounded by stacks of half-folded clothes. Willow gently shook the Slayer awake.

"Buffy?"

_Snerrghhuh? Oh..._

"Whoops, sorry about that." Yawning and gesturing to a nearby chair Buffy was surprised when Willow instead moved to shut the door and then sat on the small unmade bed. The one thing Buffy hadn't straightened up yet. Figures. Buffy laughed softly and wondered what her friend was up to._  
_

Willow held out her hands, shoulder width apart and palms up, and then looked at Buffy. "I don't think I can explain it all but...I thought about it and...it might be better if I show you...what's been going on."

Buffy got up and walked over. "Wait you mean like some kind of mind meld thing?" She was rewarded with a small smile as she sat in front of her friend.

"Yes, something like that"

"Oh, well okay"

Scooting up a bit, Buffy put her hands on top of Willow's. She smiled briefly remembering the last time that she sat in this same position, when Willow used her Slayer strength to heal._ Seems like so long ago..._

Curious and a little apprehensive, Buffy waited silently for her friend to begin. She watched Willow close her eyes, take a deep breath, and slowly let it out.

Then everything went dark.


End file.
